Over the years a few internet micro celebrities (and some real celebrities) have walked through the the doors and down the jetway onto the tarmac of Monmouth Jet Center, the airport at the heart of central New Jersey. A select few have even begun their successful careers at Monmouth—this post is dedicated to them.
Of course, the most notable celebrity we know of that has flown out of Monmouth has to be the beloved Bruce Springsteen. According to the Airport’s own history and other news articles, Springsteen used the airport’s hangars on multiple occasions for discreet rehearsals with the E-Street band and flew out of the airport several times, taking advantage of its proximity to Colts Neck, Asbury Park, and his hometown of Freehold.
In January of 2024, popular YouTuber steveo1kinevo gained over 550,000 views documenting his new position flying a Daher TBM940, N949BZ, with an all-glass Garmin G3000 flight deck. His video featured Monmouth Jet Center extensively at the start, including some footage of the FBO, himself walking down the jetway to the TBM, and full-service refueling at the airport. Kinevo obtains his IFR clearance from Joint Base Mc Guire Airport nearby, as KBLM isn’t towered and hasn’t been for quite some time.
In July of 2024, a smaller but still popular YouTuber East Coast Aviation captured themselves departing Princeton Airport (39N) and flying into Monmouth for a soft and smooth landing on Runway 32. They note a deer running across the tree line that they spotted on approach, which they highlight would’ve definitely sparked a go-around. East Coast Aviation primarily makes HD plane spotting videos and I highly recommend their channel, as they have many unique views like this Airbus H160 at Trenton-Mercer Airport (KTTN).
Perhaps one of the most interesting content creators is Isaac Cohen, or 1JC Pilot. Cohen is a jack of many trades and over the years has posted all kinds of content on his channel, from racing and biking to boating and flying. The best of Cohen’s aviation content began recently, and the community has begun to take notice, with his most popular video amassing 22,000 views at only 3 weeks old as of writing. Cohen has flown many jets and props before including the TBM 940, Phenom 300E, Citation M2, and as of late a beautiful Citation CJ3+, N39SS, featuring an all-glass Garmin G3000 flight deck. According to recent videos, he also has a Cirrus Vision Jet SF50 on the way—This is the kind of life I dream of.
One of my favorite creators in the central Jersey area is TRL Aviation. TRL began uploading in December of 2023 taking lessons for his PPL out of Old Bridge Airport (3N6) in a Piper Archer II (N8454H) at Pilots Flying School. Since then, TRL has started flying at Elite Flight Experience at 39N, making many videos at KBLM along the way.
Mike Grossman, based out of Monmouth airport, has made waves on YouTube since first uploading to the platform in December of 2005 amassing over 390,000 views. His most popular video was recorded over the Hudson River on January 30th, 2016 at 6:16PM, when a camera mounted to the rear left of his Piper Cherokee (N7185F) captured a shooting star to his 3 o’clock. Despite not having uploaded anything aviation-related since July 17, 2017, Grossman has still produced some excellent content at Monmouth including full footage of a crosswind landing in a Cessna 152 on Runway 32.
In addition to YouTube, Carlee Szarek is an incredibly talented commercially rated single and multi-engine pilot as well as a full-time certified flight instructor with instrument instruction privileges at Elite Flight Experience. Despite working out of Monmouth, Szarek is from California, and many of the videos on her channel feature cross-country flights in her 172H N8091L. Her bubbly personality combined with her positive and effective instruction style make her one of the best CFIs I’ve had the good fortune of encountering.
While not making videos in the cockpit, The Philly Buff has built a robust channel on filming all kinds of travel related content from trains and trucks to planes and helicopters. They’ve filmed some excellent plane spotting at Monmouth, including this video featuring Cessna Citation V N510JN, 172SP N169LP (owned by Eagles View Aviation, one of the two flight schools at the airport), and 441 N14FJ.
An honorable mention certainly worth noting on this list for its production quality is Valerie Morrison, known as Valkyrie427, who published a short vlog at the end of August 2024 detailing their final shift at the airport as a line service technician/ramp agent. After working there for almost 8 years, they claimed it was “time to hang up [their] orange vest”. Featured in the video are numerous incredible jets sitting on the ramp at KBLM, including N428QS, N729HZ, N821JS, and N888MF. They end off the video by marshaling one last jet, N704DA.
I hope to someday join these incredibly talented aviators and content creators that get to do incredible things like jetting off to Florida or cruising down the Jersey Shore to Cape May. Even seeing these beautiful planes on the ramp brings me great joy, and I hope I can continue to both watch and learn.
–Alex
Leave a Reply